The Detroit Red Wings’ 3-2 overtime victory over the Montreal Canadiens felt a little bit unbelievable given how badly the Red Wings were out-played in the 3rd period, but Alex Nedeljkivic made 13 stops, some spectacular…
And Detroit managed to sneak their way into overtime, where Dylan Larkin scored a beautiful goal off Samuel Montembeault, who replaced Jake Allen after Larkin was very dirtily shoved into Allen by Jeff Petry earlier in the game.
Larkin said he was worried about Allen on the play. “I can’t do much,” Larkin said. “I’m full speed, Petry is full speed. A little push. I’m can’t move. I’m tired, I’m at the end of my shift. I can’t do anything. I think about him, I think about myself, yes, with injuries. It was a tough play and I feel really bad about it.”
Thanks to Larkin’s OT goal, most things ended well* for the Red Wings, who finish with 3 victories on their 4-game home-stand by taking their only victory of the season from the Canadiens.
The Detroit Red Wings played their third and final game of the season against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night, hoping to snap an 0-and-2 losing streak against the Habs.
With most of Red Wings blog-dom in the crowd due to the Winged Wheel Podcast and Winging It in Motown meet-ups taking place, the Detroit Red Wings surrendered a 1-0 lead to the Canadiens, Dylan Larkin and Pius Suter scored goals under a minute apart to give the Wings a 2-1 lead, Montreal tied the game early in a 3rd period that the Habs dominated, but Alex Nedeljkovic was huge, and Dylan Larkin scored a gorgeous goal in overtime to deliver a 3-2 OVERTIME victory for the Red Wings.
We’ve signed veteran defenseman Steve Oleksy to a PTO.
Oleksy skated in 36 games with us back in 2019-20, posting 15 points (1G, 14A) and 62 PIM. He’s also appeared in 73 career NHL contests. pic.twitter.com/iJkeBVPpe8— Toledo Walleye (@ToledoWalleye) November 13, 2021
The Wings have their last chance to earn two points against the Canadiens on Saturday — the teams only meet three times this season. The Wings will have to play a more complete game than the previous two times.
“They were probably a little bit different games,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “The first game (Oct. 23, a 6-1 loss), we started fine. We got into penalty trouble, and then we weren’t able to create enough after that. The last game (Nov. 2, a 3-0 loss), we played poorly. It was the worst game, I think, we’ve played all season in terms of how we actually played, in terms of our energy. We were a step behind the whole night. It was an egg for us, just one of those nights.”
One noticeable difference in Saturday’s game will be the presence of forwards Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi for the Wings.
Bertuzzi hasn’t been available for the Wings in either game in Montreal because of his vaccination status. The fact Bertuzzi has decided to dec a shot, makes him unable to go into Canada. The Wings also didn’t have Larkin in the last game, as he returned home to deal with a family emergency.
Larkin and Bertuzzi are two of the Wings’ best offensive players. But teams will miss players at certain points of the schedule for injuries, or any other number of reasons, Blashill said. It’s important to overcome the absences.
“In the NHL you’re always going to be in situations where you’re missing guys, and you have to find a way to be successful,” Blashill said. “We’ve seen Montreal play great hockey and in the last game they were outstanding against us. They won every loose puck, every battle, they made us look poor defensively.”
The Grand Rapids Griffins are hosting the Manitoba Moose for the second half of a home-and-still-at-home series tonight at 7 PM EST, and here’s the Griffins’ Game Day Preview video:
“The last game, they crushed us. I don’t care who we were missing, they were way better than us,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “I didn’t necessarily feel that way totally in parts of the first game, but when I look back on it, we didn’t have many chances. So, they’ve kind of put a beating on us for two games, regardless of who we had or didn’t have.
“In the NHL you’re always going to be in situations where you’re missing guys. You got to find a way to be successful. We’ve seen Montreal play great hockey and I thought in the last game they were outstanding against us. They won every loose puck, every battle. They were faster than us, they made us look poor defensively.”
The Red Wings (7-6-2) wrap up a four-game homestand. The Canadiens (4-10-1) have gained points in back-to-back games (overtime loss to Kings, victory over Flames) for the first time this season. The Red Wings are coming off a 2-0 loss to Washington on Thursday, the third time they have been shut out this season.
“The key for us to creating offense is that we’re playing on our toes, playing aggressive but playing smart,” Blashill said. “I thought (on Thursday) we started really aggressive and playing well and then we gave up some easy outnumbered rushes because we weren’t playing smart, we lost our body position a little bit too much. We just got to make sure we’re playing our game, we’re playing with confidence, we’re good with the puck.”
I’m fairly certain that I’ve posted this before, but The Coaches’ Site is sharing a 50-minute clip of Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill discussing skill development during practice as a, well, practice for all coaches to focus upon over the course of a 50-minute conversation held during last summer’s coaches summit:
#LGRW head coach Jeff Blashill on the importance of focusing on skill development in practice.
Meanwhile, the Habs were without Jonathan Drouin at their morning skate. Drouin suffers from (post-concussive?) headaches caused by taking a puck to the head in the last meeting between Detroit and Montreal (a 3-0 loss to Montreal on November 2nd):
The Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens will play for the third and final time this season on Saturday night from Little Caesars Arena in The District Detroit. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m., with broadcast coverage on Bally Sports Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network.
Montreal has taken care of business in the first two matchups between the Original Six and Atlantic Division rivals, defeating Detroit, 6-1, on Oct. 23, and recording a 3-0 shutout on Nov. 2. Both games took place at the Bell Centre.
According to Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill, Detroit fell short in those contests for different reasons.
The Red Wings would prefer not to repeat the performance they had just 11 days ago on the road.
“They were probably a little bit different games,” Blashill said. “The last game, I thought we played poorly. It was the worst game, I think, we’ve played all season in terms of how we actually played, in terms of our energy. We were a step behind the whole night, and it was an egg for us. It was just one of those nights.”
After the morning skate, the Red Wings spoke with the media:
Michael Rasmussen’s keys to picking up a win against MTL, after falling to them twice this season: “Stick to our game plan. We have not played to our structure. Can’t give them big chances or looks. Gotta keep playing hard and playing for each other and take care of the puck.”— Carley Johnston (@carleykjohnston) November 13, 2021
Michael Rasmussen says watching Luke Glendening last year has really helped his game #LGRW@DetroitRedWings— Carley Johnston (@carleykjohnston) November 13, 2021
Coach Blashill says he feels this team has helped re-establish the culture of this organization. I couldn’t agree more #LGRW@DetroitRedWings— Carley Johnston (@carleykjohnston) November 13, 2021
TSN 690 Montreal’s Sergio Momesso also said, “Hello”:
#tsn690 little Caesar’s one of the best arena s to broadcast games but still pretty hard to beat the atmosphere at the old Joe Louis pic.twitter.com/HbCWOMkCOP— Sergio Momesso (@SergioMomesso36) November 13, 2021
And TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie confirmed that Nedeljkovic is starting tonight:
